West Coastway Line - The Routes

The Routes

• Brighton trains serving the West Coastway leave from platforms 1, 2 and 3 which curve round to leave the Brighton Main Line route to pass through.
• here was Holland Road Halt opened 1905 and closed 1956; when closed it was the only station on the West Coastway line to retain timber decking. This station was sited just west of the Holland Road bridge.

Note: To the east of the Holland Road bridge lay the site of a first Hove station, 1840 to 1880, the site was later used as a commercial coal yard

• Aldrington opened as Dyke Junction Halt 1905 to serve the Devil's Dyke single-line branch (3.5 miles or 5.6 kilometres in length) opened 1887, closed 1938
• here is the now closed branch to Kingston Wharf, serving Shoreham Harbour
• here was the junction for the line to Horsham, opened 16 September 1861 and closed 7 March 1966. The line followed the valley of the River Adur
• here was Bungalow Town Halt opened 1910, later to serve Shoreham Airport, closed in 1940 for national security reasons (Shoreham Airport became an RAF base during WWII).
  • Littlehampton branch
  • This is a 2-mile (3.2 km) branch line opened as a single line in 1863 and doubled in 1887
• Ford, was Ford Junction: at the third node of the triangle
• Barnham was Barnham Junction until 1929 opened 1864 as the junction for
  • Bognor Regis branch
  • This a 3.5 miles (5.6 km) branch line
• Drayton station - closed
• Chichester Original terminus of the Brighton and Chichester Railway on 6 June 1846; present station opened 1847 when the line was extended to Havant. Junction for the West Sussex Railway opened in 1897, closed 1935; and for the LBSCR branch to Midhurst, opened 1881 and closed to passengers 1951.
• Havant: Junction for the L&SWR Portsmouth Direct line through Petersfield and also for the LBSCR Hayling Island branch line opened 16 July 1867, 4.5 miles (7.2 km) in length with two intermediate stations serving Langstone and North Hayling. The line closed in 1966
• here there is a triangular junction for the two routes to Southampton and Portsmouth Harbour. After Farlington Junction and Portcreek Junction (between which was the now closed Farlington station) Portsmouth Direct line trains use the joint L&SWR/LBSCR metals to Portsmouth. The main West Coastway route travels across the triangle to Cosham Junction where the L&SWR section, opened on 2 September 1889, begins:
• Fareham First opened in 1841 as part of the Eastleigh-Fareham line. The east and west Coastway routes opened 1848 and 1889 respectively (see dates above). Here were also junctions for Gosport (the original connection from London to the Portsmouth area) and to Alton via the Meon valley - both closed.
• Swanwick
• Bursledon
• Hamble
• Netley Original terminus of the Southampton and Netley Railway, built to serve the Military Hospital, which had its own short railway and station. The line from here to St Denys was originally single track (later doubled)
• Sholing
• Woolston
• Bitterne on the outskirts of Southampton. Here was a passing point when the line was single track.

With the junction at St Denys the West Coastway Line joins the route of the South Western Main Line